Splice-bar for lock rail-joints.



No. 756,380. PATENTBD APR. 5, 1904. R. LANG.

SPLICE BAR FOR LOCK RAIL JOINTS. APPLIOATION FILED JAN. 15, 1904.

N0 MODEL.

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UNlTED STATES Patented April 5, 1904.

RICHARD LANG, OF MGKEESPORT, PENNSYLVANIA.

SPLICE-BAR FOR LOCK RAIL-JOINTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent NO. 756,380, dated April 5, 1904:.

Application filed January 15, 1904:. Serial No- 189,223. (No model.)

1'0 aZZ whmn it may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARD LANG, a citizen of the United States, residing at McKeesport, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rail-Joints; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to rail-joints; and it consists of certain novel features of combination and construction of parts, as will be hereinafter clearly set forth, and pointed out in the claim.

The object of my invention, among others, is to provide a rail joint which shall be reliably eflicient in character and which consists of a simple form of fish-plate locked together by a wedging-bolt of peculiar pattern.

A further object of my invention is to make it possible to use the locking-bolt for uniting the fish-plates and a contiguous part of the ends of the track-rail, such bolt being of much shorter length than bolts commonly employed for this purpose.

Other objects and advantages will be here inaftermade clearly apparent, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,which are made a part of this application, and in Figure 1 shows a perspective view of my invention complete as applied to use. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of my rail-joint, showing the bolts disposed in a locked position. Fig. 3 is a detail view showing two cooperating keyhole-apertures in the fish-plate, designed to cooperate with the locking-bolt in a inanner hereinafter set forth. Fig. 4 is a sectional view on line 4. 4 of Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of my improved locking:

For convenience the various details of my invention and cooperating accessories will be referred to by numerals, the same numeral applying to a similar part throughout the several views.

Referring to the numerals on the drawings, 1 and 2 designate the meeting ends of a trackrail of the usual or any-preferred construction,

while 3 and 4 designate fish-plates which are preferably of that pattern having a section fitting alongside and parallel with the web of the rail and an outwardly-extending flange to fit bodily over the base of the rail and provided upon its outer edge with spike-receiving recesse"s whereby the fish-plate is secured to the cross-ties 5 in a manner hereinafter set forth.

The fish-plate 3 is provided with a plurality of threaded apertures of proper size to receive the threaded end 6 of the looking-bolt 7, said locking-bolt having a head proper, 8, and a Wedge-like auxiliary head or shoulder 9 intermediate the body of the bolt and the head 8, as more clearly shown in Figs. t and 5. The fish-plate 4: instead of having the simple threaded apertures, as fish-plate 3, is

provided with a plurality of horizontally-disposed openings commonly called keyholeslots and consisting of the enlarged portion or bolt-receiving openingv 10 and the slotted section 11, which portion is inwardly tapered to fit the tapered shoulder-section or auxiliary head 9 of the bolt.

Cooperating with the form of keyhole-slot indicated by the numerals 10 and 11 are oppositely-disposed keyhole slotted openings the bolt-receiving opening of which is indicated by the numeral 12, whilethe slotted section thereof is designated'by the numeral 13, said form of slotted opening being oppositely disposed from the openings designated 10 and 11, while the slotted portion 13 is of less extent than the slotted opening 11. By this construction of the bolt-receiving openlngs,

as will be seen by reference to Fig. 3, I am enabled to attain a greater efliciency in securing the fish-plates-to the meeting ends of the rai InFig. 3.1 have shown for purposes of illustration one of the larger and smaller keyholeslots oppositely disposed with respect to each other,and it will be observed that when the securing-bolt is entered into the opening-1O in the larger slot the threaded terminal 6 of the bolt will enter the threaded opening in the opposite fish-plate, when said bolt may be turned home within its threaded seat and left at the final turn, so that the auxiliary tapered head 9 will be in proper position to enter the elongated slot 11 when the fish-plate 4: is moved to the left sufiiciently to bring the opening 12 into direct registration with the threaded aperture in the opposite fish-plate, said threaded aperture being indicated by dotted lines designated by the numeral 14:. When, therefore, the opening 12 is brought directly opposite the threaded opening 14 in the opposite fishplate, the moving of the fish-plate to the left will have caused the auxiliary tapered headsection 9 to find the extreme right-hand end of the slotted opening 11. When, therefore, this movement of the fish-plate has brought the opening 12 into registration with the threaded aperture 14:, another bolt may be entered in position and screwed home in its threaded seat, inasmuch as the auxiliary tapered head 9 can be freely turned within the opening 12, and after the bolt shall have been turned completely home the fish plate is moved sufficiently to the right to leave the auxiliary tapered head-section 9 near themid dle part of the slotted opening 13, while the other bolt will be near the middle portion of the slotted opening 11, and consequently both bolts will be held against any rotary movement, and thereby securely locked in position. It therefore becomes desirable to provide means to hold the fish-plate against longitudinal movement, and suitable recesses are therefore provided in the edge of each fish-plate of proper size to receive therein an anchoringspike of the usual or any preferred pattern, which is driven into the cross-tie, and thereby permanently locking both fish-plates in po sition until said spikes are withdrawn.

While I have shown the keyhole slotted openings for the locking-bolts of different size, it will be understood that they may all be of the same size and all extending in the same direction, in which case a slight movement of the fish-plate to the left will be all that is neces sary' to leave all of the locking-bolts within the slotted section of the keyhole-openings, and since the auxiliary head-section 9 is angular in cross-section the bolts will be held against turning after having once been disposed in a locked position and secured by the anchoring-spikes in the manner hereinbefore set forth. I therefore reserve the right to employ the keyhole-slots all of substantially the same pattern or form, or I' may employ auxiliary slotted openings of relatively smaller size and oppositely disposed in accordance with the foregoing descriptions, as I may find in practice most desirable, and I therefore do not wish to be confined to the single form of slotted openings. It being understood that each of the slotted openings 11 and 13 is inwardly tapered to insure that the tapered face of the auxiliary head-section 9 shall snugly fit therein, said tapered auxiliary head will in itself greatly reinforce the head-section proper upon the bolt, and thereby insure that the strain placed upon this part of the bolt will be distributed between the head proper, 8, and the auxiliary head-section 9, and since the threaded end 6 of the bolt is disposed directly in a threaded seat in the opposite fish-plate I am enabled to dispense with locking-nuts, which are commonly found to be very unreliable in remaining in an adjusted position thereon unless a more or less expensive and cumbrous nutlocking device is employed. It willtherefore be seen that I have provided a rail-joint and locking means for holding the fish-plates in cooperation with the meeting ends of the rail, and Ihave done so without the necessity of employinglockingmuts and securing-bolts of excessive length, and it is furthermore obvious that when the parts of my invention have once been disposed in a locked position they cannot casually become disarranged,thereby producing a rail-joint of great reliability and safety, a most important and valuable desideratum.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The herein-described rail-joint comprising the combination with the meeting ends of the track-rails, of fish-plates fitting on either side thereof, one of said fish-plates being provided with a plurality of threaded apertures and the other plate having a corresponding plurality of openings, substantially of the character specified, in combination with a locking-bolt having a threaded terminal upon one end and a main and auxiliary head-section upon the other end, said auxiliary head-section having tapered faces to fit corresponding seats in the openings in the fish-plate whereby when the bolts are entered in their threaded seats in one fish-plate and turned home therein the tapered faces of the auxiliary head may be caused to enter into the correspondinglyshaped slots contiguous to the opening into which the auxiliary head has been entered and suitable means to lock the movable fish-plate in an adjusted position and thereby secure the bolts against rotation until the movable fishplate has been returned to its initial position, all combined substantially as specified and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name scribing witnesses.

RICHARD LANG.

to this specification in the presence of two sub- 

